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The containers have no door locks so GPS technology will be used to track prisoners.

The units will be used while extra permanent prison cells are built state wide.

Acting Opposition Leader James Merlino raised fears about the safety of guards and local communities.

"This is not good management, it is simply incompetence," he said.

"There is no long-term plan just short-term fixes."

Melbourne University prisons expert Associate Professor Stuart Kinner said it would be better to lock up fewer convicted criminals.

"Rather than having to introduce these sorts of sub-optimal, makeshift measures, it would be much cheaper and much more effective to invest more in diverting people away from prisons in the first place," he said.

"I think what we are seeing here is the symptoms of a system that is not investing in diversion and other more effective measures to the extent that it could."